From the playlist:

Where's My Love - Alternate Version - SYML

Easy On Me - Adele (listen I know its corny but go look at the lyrics b4 u fight me)

Ch. 5 - The Truth

He opened his eyes and found himself in a large, sleek penthouse apartment with a view of the London city center and the Thames. It reeked of artificial, musky cologne; the kind that would make someone lightheaded if they walked too close to the wrong shop on Bond Street. Remus could hardly believe what he was seeing as he took everything in - the high ceiling, the panoramic window, the cold, marble hearth - then, he watched as Emmeline hung up her coat and satchel.

"...Hang on, you live here?" he questioned, astounded.

"Well, we do now," she answered uncomfortably, but nevertheless far too casually. "Tiberius won't be back for another hour or so. Make yourself at home." She gestured to the coathanger near the door.

He kept his jacket on. Remus continued to ogle at her, searching her face; but she carried on, using her wand to flick on light switches and tidy up stray books on the coffee table. Finally, he hung his head and looked down at his shoes, a resentful chuckle escaping his lips.

It took Emmeline by surprise, and she stopped what she was doing to look at him. "...What?"

"...I understand now," he muttered, lifting his gaze to glower at her bitterly.

Emmeline hadn't the faintest idea what he could have possibly just "understood," as she hadn't really told him anything yet. "...I'm not sure what you mean."

He plucked his hands from his pockets to gesture towards the lavish sitting room before them, taking a few steps past her to observe the extravagant furniture. The coffee table alone was probably worth more than his house.

"...Please, sit down. I need to-"

"This is all really lovely. I hope you two have a marvelous life together," he spat, cutting her off. He turned on his heels intending to disapparate home, but Emmeline grabbed his arm.

"Hey! What are you on about?"

"C'mon. It's obvious, isn't it?"

"Enlighten me," she bade him, squaring off.

Remus's eyes found her ring. "How much did that cost?"

When she realized his meaning, Emmeline's brow furrowed in disgust. "How dare you Remus Lupin-"

"Please. I'm not daft. Here I was, racking my brain, trying to come up with a reason why McLaggen might be of any interest to you, but now it all makes perfect sense."

"You have no idea what you're talking about," she insisted, her mouth twisting up as the words left. She pushed past him.

"Don't I?" he called after her. "Because I'm finding it difficult not to draw conclusions when you seem to have upgraded from our shoebox of a flat to a palace-"

"Remus, that's not-...there's more," she pleaded, still not facing him. But he was hardly listening.

"Well if it isn't his money, then what is it?" He was finally ready to hear her answer to his last, festering question. "Is it-..." He had to pause for a moment, as he could feel his shaking voice starting to betray him. "Is it because he isn't-...is it because he's normal?"

Emmeline turned around slowly as the realization took hold. It gripped her so hard, she thought it would suffocate her.

Remus lowered his voice, trying desperately to swallow away the lump in his throat. "Because if that's the case-"

"You think I left because of the lycanthropy?"

"...You never gave me any answers. It seemed like the most logical explanation…"

Emmeline drew a shuddering inhale. "That isn't-...I would never-"

"For the love of God Emmeline, then please put me out of my misery, because I have spent the last year believing you couldn't tolerate my disease any longer-"

"I was pregnant," she breathed.

He stilled.

Everything inside of Remus - from the blood in his veins to the synapses in his brain - felt as though it had come to a screeching halt.

Pregnant.

The word knocked the wind out of him.

They stood in silence, both afraid to move lest they should crumble. When Emmeline could not hold back her tears any longer, she began to sniffle into her hands. Her whimpering echoed off the vaulted ceiling.

Pregnant.

Remus's consciousness seemed to have exited his frozen body. It took him a good minute to find his way back to himself. "W-What-…" he stammered, daring one wobbly stride towards her, but holding himself back. "What happened?"

Emmeline's hands came down off her face. She pressed them together in front of her mouth like she was praying as she tried to find a way to shepherd everything forward to her voice.

Remus waited patiently.

"I found out at the end of December, a few days before I left…" she began, wiping tears with her sleeve. "We'd just finished school, and we were finding our footing in the Order, and with the war going on...I hadn't planned on that happening for a long time, and I was-...I dunno, I got so scared." She took another shaky breath. "I didn't really think, I just got up and ran like an absolute coward. But I swear Remus, I was certain you would find somebody else. I half expected you to have a date at the wedding."

He could only stare at her, bewildered beyond belief. In their year apart, he thought he had successfully come up with every possible scenario as to why Emmeline might have left. This was not one of them.

Pregnant.

Just when the wave of initial shock had crested, unfathomable panic started to grip him. He tore his eyes away to examine the flat again, looking deeper than its opulence to search for signs of life. He didn't hear anything, nor did he see anything that suggested an infant might live here; no bottles, no bassinets, no delicately crocheted blankets...

Emmeline must have noticed, because she shook her head rapidly like she was trying to shake something from her mind. "There-…there isn't a baby, though…you don't need to worry."

Remus's focus snapped back to her. "...What do you mean 'there isn't a baby'?"

She folded her arms around herself, shuddering. "...I don't think it stuck longer than eight, maybe ten weeks."

Remus covered his mouth with his hands.

"Oh-...Oh my God, Emmeline-"

"It's okay."

He strode up alongside her and led her to sit on the sofa, kneeling before her.

"It isn't your fault-"

"Are you alright?" he clamored, looking her over like the pain would show up on her skin.

She nodded unconvincingly.

"…Did you have-…Was anyone there to-…?"

"No, I...I didn't tell anybody; not even Dumbledore in the letter. I couldn't bring myself to tell my mum. Tiberius doesn't know, either…" She began to cry again. "Remus, I'm so sorry for what I did, I'm so unbelievably sorry-"

"No, Emmeline," He reached out and touched her face, his hands trembling. "I should have come after you, I thought-"

"-I never wanted you to think I left because your condition was a burden. I should've known, I should've said something-"

"You shouldn't have faced it alone."

She tipped forward into his embrace, and Remus cracked a small, pained smile as he pulled her tightly against himself.

"I couldn't look you in the eye after everything. And when Tiberius-"

"Emmeline-" He pulled back and cupped her cheeks, his lips desperate for hers, when the front door swung open:

"What the hell is going on?"

As if she had summoned him early, there stood Tiberius in the doorway, his chest puffed out like a stout bear. He wasn't a particularly tall bloke, but he was handsome in a well-groomed, expensive-wardrobe, my-watch-is-worth-more-than-you sort of way.

Emmeline gasped and rose unsteadily to her feet.

Remus shot up as well, shoving his hands back in his pockets.

Tiberius squinted at the pair of them. "...Lupin?"

"McLaggen," he grumbled a greeting.

"...What exactly are you doing in my flat with your hands on my fiancée?" Tiberius questioned, cocking an eyebrow.

Remus and Emmeline turned to one another, floundering.

"...We actually-"

"Remus was just-"

"Remus ought to know that he shouldn't come into other people's homes and put his grubby hands all over their things," Tiberius spat.

"Things-?"

"Tiberius, he wasn't-"

"-She isn't a thing."

By now, Tiberius had gotten a better look at Emmeline's face, and suddenly brandished his wand. "...What has he done? Has he made you cry?"

"No-!"

But it was no use. He was already coming towards Remus, who reached for his own wand to defend himself; until Emmeline shielded him with her body, holding an arm out towards Tiberius.

"Don't," she implored.

Remus exhaled, astonished.

Looking incredulous, Tiberius motioned for her to get out of his way. "Move, Emmeline."

"No."

"Don't be stupid."

"Put it away."

"Go to the other room," he commanded, each word more deliberate as if he were reprimanding a dog.

"I won't."

"Now, Emmeline."

She didn't flinch.

Tiberius rolled his eyes and swished his wand to the right, using a locomotion charm to cast her to the other side of the sofa as if she were a rag doll.

"No- stop!"

Remus wasn't quick enough, and Tiberius soon had his wand jabbed against his neck. It had to be pointed upward as Remus was fairly tall and had four or five inches on him, but this did not deter Tiberius. Trying to avoid a brawl, Remus simply held his hands up.

"Leave him alone," Emmeline demanded from the sideline. "He didn't do anything wrong. I was already crying, he was only trying to console me."

Tiberius shot her a livid scowl, then brought his focus back to Remus. He eyed him up and down in a manner that sought to make up in status what he lacked in stature. "Lupin's got to get it through his skull that your title's been transferred."

Remus shared a sideways glance with Emmeline, who by the looks of it hadn't much cared for this possessive statement either. He could have assured Tiberius that he wasn't intent on snatching his fiancée away...except for the fact that he sort of had been. He'd nearly kissed her, after all. He could have pointed out that they never technically broke up in the first place, but that would probably result in a nasty hex or a punch in the nose. So instead, he just said: "She isn't an object to be traded."

Remus quickly realized that this was also not the right thing to say, not to Tiberius anyway. When McLaggen wound back to cast some sort of spell, Emmeline caught his elbow. It distracted him long enough for Remus to draw his wand, but before any jinxes were thrown, Emmeline outdrew them both:

"Accio!"

Both mens' wands flew out of their grasps into her hand.

"That's enough!" she screeched, thrusting herself between them once more. She shot Tiberius a disdainful look, withholding his wand from him; but her brow softened as she handed Remus's back. "Remus was just hugging me goodbye, that's all. Weren't you, Remus?"

What?

But they had so much left to discuss.

Would they see each other again?

This was all wrong.

This penthouse was wrong.

The ruddy coffee table was wrong.

He was wrong.

"Come with me," Remus's eyes pleaded.

But Emmeline remained where she stood.

Behind her, Tiberius tapped his foot impatiently. "...Any day now, Lupin."

To prevent himself from following through on the curse he so badly wanted to deliver, Remus offered her one last look of defeat, then disapparated.

When he was gone, Tiberius strode around to face Emmeline, snatching his wand out of her grip. "What in Merlin's name was that? Care to explain yourself?"

"Not when you're so angry," she muttered, gazing dismally at the spot where Remus had just been.

Tiberius scoffed. "I knew I should have never let you go to that wedding. Did you have a good snog for old times sake?"

That brought her right out of her trance, and she turned back to him with a caustic glare.

"No."

"Must have been a fairly intimate conversation then."

Well, it sort of had been, but she couldn't concede that to him. "You knew I had never given him a proper goodbye. We just needed closure." She stuttered through the word "needed," almost neglecting the past tense. They had hardly achieved closure; if anything, she had ripped the seam wider.

Tiberius was as unsympathetic as he would have been towards a toy that someone was trying to take from him on the playground. "Well I've never seen 'closure' that looked quite like that," he blistered, headed for the bar counter in his office. "Don't forget who's roof you live under now."